Miguel hidalgo y costilla

=Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla

| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla (1753-1811), a Mexican revolutionary priest, is considered the foremost patriot of Mexican independence. He led a revolt against Spanish rule that inaugurated a series of military and political episodes culminating in the achievement of Mexican independence in 1821. Hidalgo wasborn on the Corralejo hacienda near Pénjamo, Guanajuato, on May 8, 1753. His father , don Cristóbal, was of middle-class creole background and served as the hacienda's administrator. Sent to the Colegio San Nicolás in Valladolid, Hidalgo received his bachelor's degree in theology in 1773 and was ordained in 1778. In 1803, at the age of fifty, he arrived in the Guanajuato town of Dolores. Hidalgo'spolitical and intellectual growth was nurtured by membership in the literary societies that were so prevalent in colonial Mexico in the early 19th century. These literary circles, which soon became political circles, were the true incubators of the independence movement in Mexico. Hidalgo's impulse toward freedom for his people was also fed by a strong egalitarian instinct. It was Hidalgo'sempathy with the masses that would be both his great asset and fatal flaw once the independence movement got started. An intellectual comrade -- later to become a comrade in arms -- was a young captain named Ignacio Allende. Allende headed one of the political-literary circles in Querétaro and he and Hidalgo soon became active co-conspirators against Spanish rule. Hidalgo and Allende had originallyplanned the rising for December 8, 1810. But there were leaks among the conspirators and plans for the rebellion were sniffed out by the magistrate of Querétaro. Fortunately for the conspirators, his wife, Josefa Ortiz, was a strong supporter of the rebellion. Though the magistrate locked her in her room, she signaled her next door neighbor, Ignacio Pérez, to come over. Through the keyhole she toldPérez, a fellow conspirator, that her husband planned to arrest Allende. But Allende had already left to confer with Hidalgo and decide what to do to meet the emergency. The result was Hidalgo's famed grito ("shout") from his pulpit at 11 p.m. of September 15.Hidalgo, in truth, was even less qualified to be a general than he was to be a priest. With Mexico City almost in his grasp, he inexplicablyturned back toward Guadalajara. Hidalgo entered Guadalajara in triumph and was able to raise his force to 100,000. All the city's dignitaries and officials still believed that Hidalgo represented the wave of the future. The excommunicated priest was hailed as a liberator, fiestas were given in his honor and he was accorded the title of Supreme Highness.But on March 21, in the mountains ofCoahuila, they were ambushed by a traitor and turned over to the Spanish authorities.Because he was a priest, albeit an excommunicated one, Hidalgo was turned over to the bishop of Durango for an official defrocking. On July 30, 1811, he was shot in Chihuahua. With a gallantry that impressed all, Hidalgo calmly instructed members of the firing squad to aim for the right hand that he placed over his heart.José Maria Morelos
José María Morelos (1765-1815) was a Mexican parish priest who joined the forces seeking to liberate Mexico from Spanish rule. He became the greatest of the insurgent military commanders, and as a statesman he advocated far-reaching political and social reforms.
Morelos was born in Valladolid (now Morelia, the capital of the state of Michoacán) on Sept. 30, 1765. Amestizo (of mixed Spanish and Indian blood), he was thus a member of the lower classes in the Spanish colonial social system. His parents were respectable though poor, and young Morelos went to work at an early age as a mule driver in the tierra caliente of southern Mexico.
In 1790 Morelos, with money he had saved and the barest rudiments of an education, enrolled at San Nicolás College in...